For nearly as long as humans have needed to carry objects of substantial weight with their shoulders, there have been straps and slings formed to carry those objects. To make them more comfortable, various types of these slings have been formed with some kind of padding. Slings have come in a variety of textiles that have varying degrees of strength and flexibility, including the many different kinds of fabrics, rubber, and leather. The padded portions of slings are often formed out of a different kind of material than the sling body itself, the padded material having been selected for its cushioning properties. No matter what kind of padded material is chosen, it must be affixed to the sling body in some way, such as by sliding, stitching, or insertion.
There are several known ways of adding padded material to a strap. One way is to construct a separate piece that slides onto the strap, wherein the strap is a unitary piece and the separate padded piece is threaded using some kind of serpentine pattern. This enables the pad itself to slide from one side of the strap to another. Examples of sliding pads can commonly be found on briefcase straps, which are typically padded with a soft material, or on athletic duffel bag straps, some of which are simply flat rubber pieces with gripping surfaces. An advantage to these sliding pads is that they are moveable to various places on the strap. A disadvantage is that they are easily snagged on other objects, such as the wearer's clothes, and their separate construction makes them susceptible to breaking, tearing, or otherwise separating from the actual strap. Further, the sliding motion of the pad is often not necessary, because users typically carry objects in similar ways every time, and therefore only need padding in one specific area of a strap. A strap manufacturer might simply manufacture a sliding pad for ease of manufacture rather than the necessity of the user.
Another way to add padded material to a sling or strap is to stitch it in a stationary manner to the outside of a section of the strap. When a padded material is added to the outside of a strap in this way, there is necessarily a transition area between the strap portion and the padded portion, often defined by stitching, a change in thickness, a change in material, a change in texture, or all of the above. The stationary location of the padded section on the sling may be preferable to a sliding pad, because it can reduce the snagging in comparison to a sliding pad, but the problems of snagging still exist, as does the likelihood of breaking or tearing at the transition area.
Another way to add padding to a sling or strap is to attach three separate pieces together in a linear fashion, with the first and the third of the pieces being the strap body and the middle piece being the padded section. These sections are typically stitched together or otherwise fused at their points of connection. Such stitching or fusing again creates the problems with snagging, and may make the entire sling even more susceptible to breaking or tearing because the joint may not be reinforced.
Yet another way to add padding to a sling is to insert the padded material into the strap material during manufacturing. This method is less common than the construction of the sliding pad or stitching a padded section onto the outside of a strap, perhaps because the manufacturing of an inserted pad poses several problems. For example, manufacturing may have to be done in layers to fit a pad in between two other sections of material, and the outer sections would still need to be fused together through stitching, gluing, or some other kind of bonding, which itself can be susceptible to breaking or tearing. Another way to insert a pad can be through a temporary or permanent hole in a section of the strap. Such a solution may also be problematic for several reasons. For example, a pad may not be as large as desired because it is limited by the size or placement of the hole. Additionally, it may be difficult to retain the desired shape of the padding within a section of the strap. Therefore, there exists a need to remedy the deficiencies in the prior art.